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Indian-origin IT executive Sriram Krishnan is “helping out” Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk as he makes changes to the social media platform. At the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Krishnan is a general partner, according to an NDTV report.   Krishnan tweeted, “Now that the word is out: I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people. I (and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen.” Read: Musk fires Twitter's board of directors becomes board's sole member Krishnan invests in early-stage consumer startups, and, according to his profile on Andreessen Horowitz’s website, he sits on the boards of Bitski, Hopin, and Polywork. Krishnan held a number of senior product positions before joining a16z, and according to his profile, most recently he “led core consumer teams at Twitter where he was responsible for products including the home timeline, new user experience, search, discovery, and audience growth”. According to his profile, he previously established and directed a number of mobile ad products for Facebook and Snap, including the Facebook Audience Network, one of the biggest networks for display advertising, and Snap’s Direct Response advertisements business. Read: Musk says Twitter blue tick being revamped

Billionaire Elon Musk is already floating major changes for Twitter — and faces major hurdles as he begins his first week as the owner of the social-media platform. Twitter's new owner fired the company's board of directors and made himself the board's sole member, according to a company filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk later said on Twitter that the new board setup is “temporary,” but he didn't provide any details. He's also testing the waters on asking users to pay for verification. A venture capitalist working with Musk tweeted a poll asking how much users would be willing to pay for the blue check mark that Twitter has historically used to verify higher-profile accounts so other users know it’s really them. Read more: Musk says Twitter blue tick being revamped Musk, whose account is verified, replied, “Interesting.” Critics have derided the mark, often granted to celebrities, politicians, business leaders and journalists, as an elite status symbol. But Twitter also uses the blue check mark to verify activists and people who suddenly find themselves in the news, as well as little-known journalists at small publications around the globe, as an extra tool to curb misinformation coming from accounts that are impersonating people. “The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk tweeted Sunday in response to a user who asked for help getting verified. Read more: Musk tweets conspiracy theory about attack on Pelosi's husband, then deletes it On Friday, meanwhile, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said he and his Kingdom Holding Company rolled over a combined $1.89 billion in existing Twitter shares, making them the company’s largest shareholder after Musk. The news raised concerns among some lawmakers, including Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut. Murphy tweeted that he is requesting the Committee on Foreign Investment — which reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers — to investigate the national security implications of the kingdom's investment in Twitter “We should be concerned that the Saudis, who have a clear interest in repressing political speech and impacting U.S. politics, are now the second-largest owner of a major social media platform,” Murphy tweeted. “There is a clear national security issue at stake and CFIUS should do a review.” Read More: Lay-off at Twitter: Elon Musk seeks list of staff according to report Having taken ownership of the social media service, Musk has invited a group of tech-world friends and investors to help guide the San Francisco-based company's transformation, which is likely to include a shakeup of its staff. Musk last week fired CEO Parag Agrawal and other top executives. There's been uncertainty about if and when he could begin larger-scale layoffs. “I do think there will be a lot of layoffs,” said Matthew Faulkner, an assistant finance professor at San Jose State University. Faulkner noted the need for cost-cutting after Musk bought Twitter for a premium and the platform’s longtime struggles trying to turn a profit. But Musk might also want as quickly as possible to weed out employees who don’t believe in his mission so that those who stay feel more secure. “You don’t want to have frantically scared employees working for you,” Faulkner said. “That doesn’t motivate people.” Read More: Musk seeks US funds for satellite network in Ukraine Those who have revealed they are helping Musk include Sriram Krishnan, a partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which pledged back in the spring to chip into Musk's plan to buy the company and take it private. Krishnan, who is also a former Twitter product executive, said in a tweet that it is “a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen.” Jason Calacanis, the venture capitalist who tweeted the poll about whether users would pay for verification, said over the weekend he is “hanging out at Twitter a bit and simply trying to be as helpful as possible during the transition.” Read More: Musk says Twitter deal could move ahead with 'bot' info Calacanis said the team already “has a very comprehensive plan to reduce the number of (and visibility of) bots, spammers, & bad actors on the platform.” And in the Twitter poll, he asked if users would pay between $5 and $15 monthly to “be verified & get a blue checkmark” on Twitter. Twitter is currently free for most users because it depends on advertising for its revenue. Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion in April but it wasn't until Thursday evening that he finally closed the deal, after his attempts to back out of it led to a protracted legal fight with the company. Musk's lawyers are now asking the Delaware Chancery Court to throw out the case, according to a court filing made public Monday. The two sides were supposed to go to trial in November if they didn't close the deal by the end of last week. Musk has made a number of pronouncements since early this year about how to fix Twitter, and it remains unclear which proposals he will prioritize. Read More: Looming Musk-Twitter legal battle hammers company shares He has promised to cut back some of Twitter's content restrictions to promote free speech, but said Friday that no major decisions on the content or reinstating of banned accounts will be made until a “content moderation council” with diverse viewpoints is put in place. He later qualified that remark, tweeting “anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail.” The head of a cryptocurrency exchange that invested $500 million in Musk’s Twitter takeover said he had a number of reasons for supporting the deal, including the possibility Musk would transition Twitter into a company supporting cryptocurrency and the concept known as Web3, which many cryptocurrency enthusiasts envision as the next generation of the internet. “We want to make sure that crypto has a seat at the table when it comes to free speech,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told CNBC on Monday (October 31, 2022). “And there are more tactical things like we want to help bring Twitter into Web3 when they’re ready.” Read More: Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter deal gets board endorsement He said cryptocurrency could be useful for solving some of Musk’s immediate challenges, such as the plan to charge a premium membership fee for more users. “That can be done very easily, globally, by using cryptocurrency as a means of payment,” he said.

The White House is bringing together three dozen nations, the European Union and a slew of private-sector companies for a two-day summit starting Monday that looks at how best to combat ransomware attacks. The second International Counter Ransomware Summit will focus on priorities such as ensuring systems are more resilient to better withstand attacks and disrupt bad actors planning such assaults. A senior Biden administration official cited recent attacks such as one that targeted the Los Angeles school district last month to underscore the urgency of the issue and the summit. The official previewed the event on the condition of anonymity. Read: G-20 summit could put Biden in the same room with Putin and MBS Among the administration officials planning to participate in the event are FBI Director Christopher Wray, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. President Joe Biden is not expected to attend. Participating countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, the European Commission, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. Read: Foundation of US democracy being called into question: Obama Companies that will take part include Crowdstrike, Mandiant, Cyber Threat Alliance, Microsoft, Cybersecurity Coalition, Palo Alto, Flexxon, SAP, the Institute for Security + Technology, Siemens, Internet 2.0, Tata – TCS and Telefónica. The previous summit took place virtually.    

Chinese telecom giant Huawei has released the One 5G concept and set of solutions designed to facilitate the evolution of all bands of mobile communications to 5G. Yang Chaobin, president of Huawei ICT Products and Solutions and Huawei Wireless Solution, made the announcement at the Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2022 (MBBF 2022) recently. The MBBF 2022 is hosted by Huawei, together with its industry partners GSMA and GTI. This annual forum gathers mobile network carriers, vertical industry leaders, and ecosystem partners from around the world to discuss how to make 5G a commercial success, as well as other high-priority industry topics like green development, intelligence, and 5G evolution. Read: Huawei: Maximise network resources for 5G's commercial success Huawei has developed the LampSite 5.0 solution that features TDD+FDD multi-band and multi-RAT combination. The new setup reduces hardware weight and volume by 25 percent and slashes power consumption by 40 percent. Also, mmWave has been introduced for the LampSite solution to deliver indoor 10 Gbps capacity based on a distributed architecture and ultra-large bandwidth. The company has also launched the RuralLink solution that is designed for remote areas. Huawei has advanced its MetaAAU antenna array unit technology to boost performance and energy efficiency to new levels, by making use of extremely large antenna array (ELAA) technology, as well as “innovative” software and hardware coordination. Read: Huawei promises more innovation to push 5G operations ahead globally MetaAAU has been deployed at scale around the world and Huawei said it has been proven to boost uplink and downlink coverage and user experience while consuming less energy. Huawei has been upgrading its ultra-wideband and multi-antenna systems series to help operators simplify deployment, improve spectral efficiency, and provide a high-level user experience for all RATs. Huawei's ultra-wideband 4T4R RRU supports simplified deployment and millisecond-level power sharing across allcarriers, bands, and RATs, which reduces power consumption by 30% percent while ensuring the same level of GU coverage. Read: Huawei ICT Incubator announces top 6 startups from Bangladesh With layered intelligence architecture, Huawei says its IntelligentRAN can help operators reduce network O&M costs, open network capabilities, and create more business opportunities. And the combination of One 5G all-band solutions and IntelligentRAN unlocks the full potential of all bands, including TDD, FDD and mmWave, and facilitates all-band coordination for better network performance and lower power consumption.

Users of the online photo-sharing and social networking service Instagram are reporting issues with the app. Popular social media app users have shared that the app keeps crashing or closing abruptly. Meta-owned Instagram lets users take pictures, apply filters to them and share those pictures in several ways, including through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It is available as an application for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Read: Restricted from Twitter, Instagram; Kanye to buy conservative social network Parler

New Twitter owner Elon Musk has said the process of gaining a prestigious "blue tick" will be revised, amid reports the firm could start charging $20 (£17) per month to be verified. Musk tweeted the verification process was being revamped, days after taking over the social media giant. A blue tick is currently free and a way of signalling an account is authentic, reports BBC. Musk completed his $44bn (£37.9bn) takeover on Friday, and has renamed himself as Chief Twit on Twitter. Read: Musk tweets conspiracy theory about attack on Pelosi's husband, then deletes it During months of legal wrangling leading up to the acquisition, the billionaire repeatedly expressed concerns about the verification process, and the number of spam and bot accounts he believes litter the site. Musk's tweet, on Sunday, did not give any more details about what exactly might change. But according to tech website The Verge, which cited internal correspondence, Twitter now wants to charge people $19.99 per month to keep their blue tick verification status. It says the plan involves quadrupling the price for Twitter Blue - the company's subscription service - and making verification one of its features. Verified users would be given 90 days to subscribe or face losing their blue tick, it reports. Employees were told of the project on Sunday and have been told they need to launch the scheme by 7 November or risk losing their jobs, it added. Read: Lay-off at Twitter: Elon Musk seeks list of staff according to report Twitter Blue was launched last summer, and gives subscribers access to various premium features including the option to undo a tweet. It is currently optional and costs $4.99 per month. While there has been no official confirmation of the plan, on Monday Mr Musk appeared to acknowledge the speculation in a new tweet which said: "On no, all our diabolical plans have been revealed!!" Job cut fears In a separate development, Mr Musk has denied a New York Times report that he plans to lay off Twitter workers before the start of next month to avoid having to make payouts. It follows his buyout last week which saw the exit of the firm's top bosses - including its chief executive, chairman and finance chief. At the weekend, The New York Times reported that Musk had ordered major job cuts across Twitter's workforce. The newspaper said the layoffs would take place before 1 November, when workers were due to receive grants of shares in the company as a major part of their pay deals. But replying to a Twitter user asking about the report, he said: "This is false." The takeover has prompted discussion among Twitter users over what the platform will look like under Musk's ownership. Read: Musk takes over Twitter: Users testing chaos, misinformation policies Some have voiced concerns that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be allowed back to the platform, according to BBC reports. Last week Musk said that he doesn't want the platform to become an echo chamber for hate and division. "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!" he tweeted. However after denying the New York Times job cuts report, Musk tweeted a screen shot of a New York Times headline about him posting a link to a "site known to publish false news". The New York Times headline referred to a reply Musk had posted, and then deleted, at the weekend to a tweet by former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. His reply contained a link to a conspiracy theory about an assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Musk also started a Twitter poll asking his more than 112m followers whether he should bring back the short-video app Vine. The service that allowed users to share six-second-long looping clips was bought by Twitter in 2012. It gained more than 200m active users by the end of 2015 before being shelved by the social media platform. Musk has previously run polls on whether or not he should sell 10% of his stake in the electric car maker Tesla and if Twitter should have an edit button.

On Sunday (October 30, 2022), Elon Musk tweeted and then removed a link to a piece that promoted an untrue conspiracy theory on the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The post from Musk, who is now the owner of Twitter, sparked questions about the kind of information that will be permitted on the platform now that he is in charge of it. In a now-deleted tweet in response to Hillary Clinton, Elon Musk stated: "There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye." The tweet included a link to a report from the right-wing website Santa Monica Observer, which, according to an archived version of the story, has promoted an anti-LGBT conspiracy theory regarding the attack, CBS News reported. According to The Associated Press, the source has previously made bogus statements, such that Clinton herself passed away on September 11 and has since been replaced by a lookalike. Read more: Lay-off at Twitter: Elon Musk seeks list of staff according to report Musk removed the tweet on Sunday (October 30, 2022) immediately after it was posted. The 42-year-old David Wayne DePape is suspected of hitting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul Pelosi with a hammer on Friday inside the Pelosi family's San Francisco home, according to a tweet from the former secretary of state. Clinton tweeted: "The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow." Musk's deleted tweet was posted days after the Tesla CEO acquired the social media platform for $44 billion and assumed official control of it. Read more: Musk takes over Twitter: Users testing chaos, misinformation policies Musk tweeted on Friday (October 28, 2022) that Twitter will be creating a "content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints" amid ongoing speculation over the kind of content that would be permitted on the platform and whether previously banned accounts would be allowed back in.

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has announced plans to start laying off employees and has reportedly asked some managers to compile names of those who will be let go. After taking control of Twitter, Musk ordered the layoffs on Saturday (October 29, 2022) to be made in the company which has 7,500 employees – with some teams to be trimmed more than others, reports the New York Times. Read more: Musk takes over Twitter: Users testing chaos, misinformation policies According to the report, Musk told investors that he planned to take Twitter private, reduce staff, loosen content moderation standards, and look for new revenue sources. The number of layoffs, however, was not known. Employees were expected to receive stock grants as part of their remuneration, according to the NYT story, and the layoffs may occur before November 1. Read more: Elon Musk takes over Twitter: what to expect? While the merger agreement compels him to give the employees cash instead of their shares, it also stated that Elon Musk may avoid paying the grants by firing Twitter employees before to the deadline.

Twitter’s newly minted owner, the self-described “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk, is about to get a crash course on global content moderation. Among his first moves after completing his $44 billion takeover Thursday was to fire the social media platform’s top executives, including the woman in charge of trust and safety at the platform, Vijaya Gadde. He also posted a conciliatory note to wary advertisers, assuring them he won’t allow Twitter to devolve into a “free-for-all hellscape.” The problem is, not even the world’s richest man can have it both ways. Lightly moderated “free speech” sites such as Gab and Parler serve as cautionary tales of what can happen when the guardrails are lowered. These small, niche sites are popular with conservatives and libertarians fed up with what they see as censorship of their viewpoints on mainstream platforms like Facebook. They are also full of Nazi imagery, racist slurs and other extreme content, including calls to violence. Some conservative personalities jumped on Twitter Friday after Musk’s takeover to recirculate long-debunked conspiracy theories in an apparent attempt to see if the site’s policies on misinformation were still being enforced. Advertisers don’t want to promote their products next to disturbing, racist and hateful posts — and most people don’t want to spend time on chaotic online spaces where they are barraged by racist and sexist trolls. On Friday, GM announced it would be pausing advertising on Twitter while it figures out the direction of the platform under Musk. But Lou Paskalis, former head of media for Bank of America, said Twitter’s most loyal advertisers, many Fortune 100 companies, believe in the platform and probably won’t leave unless “some really untoward things” happen. But it’s not just ads and jokes that are at stake. Eddie Perez, a former Twitter civic integrity team leader, said Musk seems to consider Twitter a digital public square where everyone has equal voice. It’s a “quaint idea of the modern-day version of the town square,” Perez said. But that’s not how the major social media platforms work. They have instead become powerful tools of asymmetric warfare, and many of their users don’t realize they are being manipulated with disinformation by nation states and bad domestic actors — many with significant resources. “The danger here is that in the name of ‘free speech,’ Musk will turn back the clock and make Twitter into a more potent engine of hatred, divisiveness, and misinformation about elections, public health policy, and international affairs,” said Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Though he’d been expected to reinstate banned accounts — ranging from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — Musk said on Friday that no decisions on content or reinstatements will be made until a “content moderation council” is put in place. The council, he wrote, would have “diverse viewpoints,” but he gave no further details. Musk may be starting from scratch, but Twitter has spent years building up its content moderation system, which is still far from perfect. As such, experts have expressed grave concern’s about Musk’s efforts — after all, the Tesla CEO has little experience navigating the temperamental and geopolitical world of social media, even if he is a constant and wildly popular user of the site he just bought. “I am most concerned about Musk’s decision to summarily fire Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal policy, trust, and safety — a senior executive who was trying, however imperfectly, to keep the platform from spreading even more harmful content than it does,” Barrett said. Many are looking to see if he will welcome back a number of influential conservative figures banned for violating Twitter’s rules — speculation that is only heightened by upcoming elections in Brazil, the U.S. and elsewhere. “I will be digging in more today,” Musk tweeted early Friday, in response to a conservative political podcaster who has complained that the platform favors liberals and secretively downgrades conservative voices. Former President Donald Trump, an avid tweeter before he was banned, said Friday he was “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands” but promoted his own social media site, Truth Social, that he launched after being blocked from the more widely used platform. Trump was banned two days after the Jan. 6 attacks for a pair of tweets that the company said continued to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the presidential election and raised risks for the presidential inauguration that Trump said he would not be attending. Another task for Musk: delivering on his promise to clean up the fake profiles, or “spam bots” that have preoccupied him and bedeviled Twitter since long before he expressed interest in acquiring it. The bot count matters because advertisers — Twitter’s chief revenue source — want to know roughly how many real humans they are reaching when they buy ads. It’s also important in the effort to stop bad actors from amassing an army of accounts to amplify misinformation or harass political adversaries.

Shortly after Elon Musk took control of Twitter, some conservative personalities wasted no time to jump on the platform and recirculate long-debunked conspiracy theories in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to “test” whether Twitter’s policies on misinformation were still being enforced. Twitter has made no announcements of any immediate policy changes and in a tweet posted on Friday afternoon, Musk said Twitter will be forming a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” and “no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.” But that didn’t stop users from cheering — or criticizing — what they expected to be a quick embrace of Musk’s previous pledges to cut back on moderation in the name of promoting free speech. Some were all too eager to see what they could get away with under the new regime. Popular right-wing pundits tweeted buzzwords such as “ivermectin,” and “Trump won” to see whether they’d be penalized for content they suggested would previously have been flagged. Ivermectin, a cheap drug that kills parasites in humans and animals, has been promoted by some Republican lawmakers and conservative talk show hosts as an effective way to treat COVID-19. But health experts have been pushing back, warning there’s scant evidence to support the belief that it works. “Ok, @elonmusk, is this thing on..?” Steve Cortes, a former commentator for the conservative TV network Newsmax and adviser to former President Donald Trump wrote in a tweet, where he included a microphone emoji. “THERE ARE TWO SEXES TRUMP WON IVERMECTIN ROCKS.” In a letter aimed to soothe the fears of advertisers, Musk vowed Thursday that Twitter won’t be a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.” But the jury is still out on what will become of the social media platform — and what it will tolerate. Observers are eyeing who stays, who goes and who might potentially come back from the list of people the platform has banned over the years. They range from Trump, to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke — none of whom have returned to the platform so far. The Associated Press checked at least a dozen other Twitter accounts that were suspended by the platform — including those used by right-wing activist James O’Keefe and MyPillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell — and each turned up an “account suspended” message as of Friday afternoon. At least one still found a way to get his message out. “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country,” Trump said Friday morning in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, leaving no indication of whether he'd return to the platform or not even though Musk has said he would allow it. “I LOVE TRUTH!,” he said, adding Twitter will be “better” if it works to get rid of bots and fake accounts “that have hurt it so badly.” Earlier in the day, news outlets reported Kanye West, the rapper legally known as Ye, appeared to be back on Twitter after being locked out of his account earlier this month over his antisemitic posts on the social media platform. But there was no evidence to suggest the status of his account had changed or that Musk played a role, and there was no sign of recent activity. Twitter did not immediately reply to a request for comment on whether Ye was back on the platform. The rapper and fashion designer had also been suspended from Instagram, where his account there was recently reinstated. Meanwhile, dozens of extremist profiles — some newly created — circulated racial slurs and Nazi imagery while expressing gratitude to Musk for his new leadership. One such post shared a breaking news update about Musk taking over the company, tweeting a racial slur and the message, “thank you Elon.” Another anonymous account tweeted, “Elon now controls Twitter, unleash the racial slurs,” along with several derogatory comments. “His acquisition of Twitter has opened Pandora’s box,” the advocacy group Ultraviolet said in a prepared statement on Friday, while also urging Musk, Twitter executives and the company's board of directors to continue to enforce the ban on Trump "as well as violent right-wing extremists and white supremacists.” Some users reacted to the news by threatening to quit, and others made fun of them for doing so. The terms “Elon,” and “deleting,” appeared in Twitter’s top trends Friday as users discussed the fallout. Speculation also permeated the platform. Some worried the number of their Twitter followers was plunging, theorizing that Twitter may be cleaning up bots. Other users posted unverified reports that their “like” counts were dwindling. “Elon Musk bought a platform, he didn’t buy people,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a social media expert and professor at Syracuse University. “And we still have a choice in how we get our news, our information and how we communicate.” Grygiel said there will be a flight to quality if Twitter descends into further chaos under Musk, and maybe that isn’t a bad thing as the platform has increasingly come to serve corporate and state media interests. And as always, users were quick to crack jokes — aiming to cut through the disorder in more comical ways. “In honor of Elon now owning this site, I’d like to start utter chaos,” CNN commentator Bakari Sellers wrote in a Tweet on Friday morning. “Which is better Popeyes or Bojangles and why?”